Imagine: your parents have been divorced for many years but are on friendly terms. You see your father several times every week as he comes over to the house where you live with your mother and sibling.
Everything seems fine and dandy until you suddenly and indirectly discover, a little over a week in advance, that your dad is getting married to a woman you have never met and did not even know he was dating. Everyone in your dad’s family had been told months ago except for you and your sister. Imagine not even receiving an invitation.
Maysa Maleek doesn’t need to make an effort of imagination because she has experienced this situation first-hand, having had to face all the hurt that came with it. However, she did not just sit down, cry, and lament her dad’s painful omission. No, Maysa dolled up for the occasion and documented her awkward and frustrating experience on TikTok, prompting others online to relate and sympathize with her familial predicament.
Could it be any worse?
Maysa found out about her father’s wedding nine days before it was due to take place. To make matters worse, she did not hear about it from the groom’s mouth. Or the bride’s, for that matter, whom she was never introduced to before the big day. Maysa was not even aware her dad was in a relationship, to begin with.
Even though she felt hurt, and for a legitimate reason, Maysa was willing to put her reluctance aside for her dad’s sake. “I’m going,” she said, “because, at the end of the day, it’s my dad.” Even if we haven’t been in Maysa and her sister’s shoes, many of us can relate to the feeling of betrayal and being lied to by a family member. Some netizens were even inspired to share their own hurtful experiences in the comments:
“I found out about my dad’s wedding from the newspaper! His wife is actually really nice to me and my siblings but she’s three years younger than me so that might just be respect for her elders 💀,” wrote one commenter.
“After my mum died my dad remarried someone a few months after and we thought we were going to a cousin’s birthday but it was his wedding 🤭🤪🥰,” shared another.
Regardless of her own personal feelings, Maysa still attended her dad’s wedding, however briefly. Two hundred people were invited to the wedding but the groom’s two daughters – plus his ex-wife whom he gets along with – did not even learn about the event from him. Maysa and her sister went to greater lengths than some netizens would:
“I wouldn’t show up,” reads the most upvoted comment.
Knowing the messy backstory, it isn’t too surprising to learn by the end of the video that attending the actual wedding did not make things better.
In a subsequent TikTok, Maysa defended her right to share her personal story online. She said: “I have no regrets. I said what I said, and I meant what I said,” and added, “If you don’t want me to do a storytime about some s*** you did, don’t do some crazy s***. It’s not that hard. It’s all it comes down to.”